I like my functions like I like my Chinese takeout: in containers. OpenFaaS provides an open-source framework to make this an easy process. Creator Alex Ellis recently showed how to run it on a Raspberry Pi cluster with Kubernetes, as well as showed off some interesting demos at DockerCon EU 17.

It’s easy to be dismissive of the humble Raspberry Pi. In many ways it’s painfully limited by slow I/O, meager compute and a reliance on an microSD card to boot. But despite these shortcoming, and perhaps because of its bargain basement price, the board has found a hoard of devotees. Keith Townsend looks at how the Pi could find a home in the data center. He makes a good point, despite being low power, the compute on it comes like my favorite pizza, “cheap and deep”.

On this edition of the Gestalt Server News:
– AMD makes a play for the data center with Naples
– AppliedMicron and X-Gene 3 hope to compete with x86
– Microsoft Edge let’s the cat out of the virtual machine bag
Plus: The MacBook Pro dongles you shouldn’t buy!

The Raspberry Pi Foundation released a new version of its most diminutive computer, the Raspberry Pi Zero W. The $10 compute now includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, making it an ideal starting point for the home IoT tinkerer.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation just launched an updated SKU of their Compute Module, now with an upgraded CPU and memory. The original Compute Module was released in 2014, and essentially brought a first-gen Raspberry Pi hardware to an Internet of Things form factor. The new Compute Module doesn’t stray far from these roots.

Welcome to new year of Networking news from Gestalt IT. In our first newsletter of the year:
– The flaws of Google Fiber
– 2017 Predictions
– The issue of network shaming
Plus looks at ThousandEyes, Netbeez, and more!

NetBeez let’s you setup wireless network agents on just about whatever hardware you want. But they’ve got a specifically tuned version for the Raspberry Pi. In fact, if you want to get fancy, they’ll sell you a Raspberry Pi in a NetBeez enclosure with everything preinstalled. Seeing this made me think the configuration might be a little intimidating. Regardless, I decided to try it for myself. It’s a compelling little package.

There are no shortage of tools for monitoring and analyzing network behavior from behind the access point. But as Drew Lentz points out, this ignores half of the network. While great pains are taken to build and maintain wireless infrastructure, network engineers need to be able to see how users are experiencing it. In order do understand how end-users are experiencing a wireless network, you must become one of them.